Waking up the next morning to the construction bots done and an additional point is amazing. Adding the point into Halo so I can get even closer to making the stuff I want to. 

Then I lead the bots to my van and load them up. leaving the 2 that helped put them together in my home. Setting up the replicators to start making basic security droids and drones to protect the other bots. Make sure to include both the hovering patrol drones along the bipedal gun-toting human-shaped one.

Driving to Mega Building 13 in the Kabuki district I offload the boys and leave them in the building basement. And what a building it was. A crappy one. that's what it was, honestly after so long with zero maintenance and half filled with gang paraphillia. I'm sure the only reason this place isn't filled with a couple dozen gang bangers is that the walls creek sometimes and no water or power is going to the place.

Not that I'm complaining, it's just that there's a lot to fix and if the very foundation is weak it might be a problem. If I couldn't just buy nanomachines and have them replace the building atom by atom. But I'll keep that as a last resort.

They stayed for an hour and a half to finish up their programming and then headed home. Of course, this is Night City and since I got here I haven't had any problems so that means running into my first shootout. Five minutes away from home and a Bunch of idiots are shooting each other.

20 or so Tyger claws and Melstrom goons shooting the shit out of the place and people running in the opposite direction. From the looks of it, the storms are winning, and not just barely. With their almost fully borged bodies, the Tyger claws just can't deal with them with their favorite smart guns. The only ones who seem to be able to do anything are the ones with mantis blades. 

Parking on the corner of the street to decide whether or not this should be my first combat scenario. While I'm almost 100% sure of the fact that I can take them on with my quick hacks that are stupidly OP, I'm not sure if the gangs will take it personally if I intervene. Not that I'm afraid, afraid of them, but I can probably either kill any that come for me or throw them off after I hop into the returner chair and feed them false info. 

What I don't want to do is be put into the spotlight this early. Sure I met with Rogue and have a 'big' deal going on with her, but that's most likely what everyone who cares enough to look into me sees. 

So like I said with my gear which is a Tetratonic Rippler Mk.4, upgraded through my software and loaded with quick hacks like ping, contagion, cyberpsychosis, short circuit, overheat and suicide means these gonks will be dead before all my hacks are even used.

Taking a few seconds to decide meant that the ebb of the firefight changed. With the Tyger claws on the back foot, they seemed to call reinforcement. Cause I could hear their bikes coming from a mile away. And if I could hear them the maelstroms could too. This new upset meant that the storms started pulling back till they were completely out of sight with the last few claws just holding their position.

With all the action over with and my choice made for me, I decided to take the next street over instead of dealing with a bunch of adrenaline-filled claws.

Getting home 7 minutes later I'm met with Rogue and her bodyguards.

"Took you long enough kid, you're late"

"By a couple of minutes. Plus it wasn't my fault some claws and storms decided to duke it out on my route home."

" Well you should always plan around surprise gang activity, don't blame them for you not doing something."

Shaking my head and just accepting there's no winning here, I just walk towards my apartment while motioning them on. Heading up 2 floors and unlocking my door I head in to see that 2 of each type of security bot have already been put together, with another 3 of them each still just a pile of parts. Pushing past them to the replicators in the corners I start to speak.

" Well, these are how I'm making everything so far." Saying that I push a small recycled bag of stuff on top and reclaim it then hit a couple of buttons on the screen for a strawberry milkshake which pops out a second later. " These little beauties can turn any material into anything, kinda like those industrial 3-D printers but better."

Handing off the milkshake to her and making more for the others I wait for Rogue to say something. which she does after a few seconds and a sip of her milkshake.

"So you can turn bags of trash into anything, like metal into meals and the other way around."

" pretty much the only problem would be the size of what I make not being able to go bigger than what the replicator can make on top of it. So while I can't make something like a car straight out, I can make it piece by piece."

" and you can make even more of these to fill up a warehouse or something, maybe even make them bigger?"

"Yup, even though technically it would be more efficient just to make smaller pieces and put them together elsewhere instead of making a big replicator. So, what do think, Even though right now I only have 2 of them I can easily make more with the 2 that I have, and with the purchase of a larger space already set up I can start making rich and you even richer"

" I think that you a gonk to show this to me just to make some money. But this certainly proves you could handle any production needs and more. Plus those guns of yours were praised by my team for being solid weapons, really solid. They said that they could compare to some of the corpos military-grade weapons and then some. And everyone who got some of this....replicated food were happy with it."

Nodding her head she held out her hand and said."very well Jake, we have a deal"

Shaking her hand sealed the deal and Rogue left 20 minutes later with 5,000 boxes of ammo, a lunch meal, and almost 250,000 thousand eddies lighter. I made a deal with her to provide whatever she needed to sell to the nomads so they could sell my product across the badlands to other free cities. Well the halo guns and ammo at least, I have other stuff I want to sell myself in NC.

Making another replicator and nuclear battery I put them in the van along with the finished security bots and headed out to the mega building again. Along the way paying off another chunk of the cost for the building.

Once I get there without any run-ins with the local gangs I start setting up the replicator and let the security bots scan the perimeter. Using programs I wrote myself they would spread out and take notice of the perimeter and then start making a path that they'll use to patrol the grounds efficiently.

Letting them do that I focus on setting up the replicator and getting the drones started on scanning the building itself and sending me the data. Having the replicator start to make a construction bot focused on putting together more replicators that I have made. Stopping at a total of five with a few batteries to go with them.

Looking through the data the construction drones sent me and began to direct them to repair what they could. which was most outer wear and tear of the building after not being repaired by the acid rain that tore through even the acid-resistant concrete. 

More than 50 years since the half-put-up megabuilding was built and while it did stand up to time well it didn't do well against the other stuff. Luckily nothing that can't be fixed with what I have and then be pushed up to 60 or 70 floors, 20 more than there originally would have been.

Double-checking everything is in order I give the green light for them to start. Even allowing them to make more construction bots and security drones to speed up or secure the area more. 

With that setup and the building taking an estimated few days just to be repaired and a month or so to be complete, the beauty of having a workforce that doesn't slow down or need to sleep. And with me open to another project I decided to focus on getting the proper paperwork.

Mostly just a formality but I'd rather not deal with it later. Nothing too serious just a right to sell guns out of wherever ever set up my shop. Which would be my mega building, a place where I will also be doing my Ripper doc services and focusing on everything a merc might need. From a doc to a place to hide to even a place to relax. Kinda like a hub for merc activity, the next afterlife but bigger and better.

Of course, I'll probably need robots or something to handle the clerk duties and easy stuff, just need to program a doll body or something. 

Along with the license to sell and getting the patent on everything I sell, just thought about that, I need the documents that say I am qualified to do all of the things that I can. Like ripper doc, engineer, chemist, mechanic, and a sleuth of other jobs. A diploma equivalent, not much just to say that I can do that stuff.

And how surprisingly easy it is to get those things. Like really for a fee and doing a test while also sending in a video I can knock out most of them and get a whole bunch of them. Sure it's not like me going through a college or something but it's better than nothing. And even if people bring them up it's not like the other places are better.

Doing all that took the rest of the day and even into the morning after, allowing me to put a point into software again and bring it up to a 4/5. The last point is worth 2 and gives me the knowledge of how to maximize every other bit of software know how I have. Like to the moon and back.

I got a text from Rogue in the afternoon for enough guns and ammo to sell to the nomad contacts she has that I get enough eddies from just the downpay to finish off the money I owe for the mega building. Meaning the place is officially mine. 

Sending orders to the replicators at the building, which almost tripled just from the construction bots needing more material, they started making everything she ordered. keeping a few free to make more replicators and construction materials.

Flicking a text to Rogue for when they'll be done and telling her where she'll be able to pick them up.

'everything will be ready in 2 days. You come and get them at the mega building 13.'

'good sending the nomads that bought the cargo, that okay?'

' Yeah, send the deets for who's picking it up

Getting the info for exchanging the goods and who would be picking it up. The Aldecaldos, Mitch, and Cassidy specifically.

Sending a thumbs up and getting back to work on the sales doll that I was working on in my apartment I let my mind drift to the aldecaldos. And what I know about them, which isn't much honestly. sure I know their quest line from 2077 but nothing deeper.

 I; 'm pretty sure they're like most other nomads though, traveling between the free cities selling whatever they can as merchants, and avoiding wraiths. The scav of the badlands. Each clan acts more like Indian tribes that move where the cash flows.

Not much else to say about them really, just people who would rather live their lives on the road instead of in a city. No hating but I don't think I could ever live like that. I like my showers and air conditioning too much. 

Not that it matters, the meeting is in 2 days after all. getting my mind back on track I focus on the doll. Now just what will she look like?